Dec 12, 2006
I have read a number of articles on how to choose a SEO company. Most of them raise some valid points, including asking what tactics they will be using, and ensuring they will not be doing anything black hat.But almost all of these articles put a lot of focus on what sort of rankings the SEO company is getting for their own site. I would argue that this is not as important as it may seem.
The SEO Company's Website
Choosing the SEO company that is number one for "SEO" or "SEO Company" in your relevant country is a likely sign that they know their stuff. When a SEO company has good rankings, this adds a lot of credibility to what they are saying. Great stuff.But I consider the true measure of quality is what they can do with a client's website, on a limited budget. When a SEO company optimises their own website, countless man hours go into this, often over several years.
- When a SEO company offers you a quote for 30 hours of SEO work, is it wise to expect similar results to what they are getting on their own site, which may have taken hundreds of hours?
- Is it wise to expect results similar to a site that has been around for 5 years, when you are wanting optimisation for a brand new site on a brand new domain?
- Is it likely that the SEO company with the best rankings is also the best value / best service / best ability for your particular requirements?
The Important Questions
When choosing a SEO company, I think the important question is "what can you do to a site like mine, with a budget like mine?".Ask to see some sites similar to yours - sites of around the same size, similar age, or similar functionality, and where a similar budget was spent.
Once you ask this question, the SEO firm may show you a project that is not their best showpiece work, but a more accurate reflection of what to expect. Ask them to describe the project in detail to get a feel for the sort of techniques that were used, and whether a similar approach might be used on your site.
It's also good if the SEO firm can show you results they have achieved for clients. Search Engine Marketing firm, Apogee Search, shows a good example of this on their Google rankings page.
The bottom line - when you have 5k to spend on SEO, don't look for a SEO company that can achieve fantastic results with a 50k budget. Take the time to find the company that can produce the best results with the budget you have.
A small word of caution
SEO related phrases tend to be more competetive than other phrases, and there are plenty of really good SEO companies that don't make it to page one in their own country for "SEO" or "SEO Services" or "SEO help".But there are also plenty of "SEO specialists" out there that can't even get found for their own company name.
So you do need to see some results for some reasonable SEO related phrases. If it's not obvious, ask what phrases they are targeting, and go check the rankings yourself. For a SEO firm, good rankings are as much about credibility as they are about traffic.
2 Comments
I have given some thought to this question a few times, and personally I love having several sites in the top 10 for a given phrase. But there is only so much room in the top 10, especially if you are competing with giants such as Wikipedia.
I think it's fine for a SEO company to take on 2 or 3 sites in the same niche, as there is room in the top results for each site. Can a SEO company take on 10 - 20 sites in the same niche and expect good rankings for all of them on the same set of phrases? I'd say that wasn't ethical. I think most SEOs would rather compete against the competition than compete against themselves.
The other issue here is the intellectual property of what you learn about a particular niche. Webmasters guard their traffic data because it takes months of work to find out what phrases bring in the best traffic, and which phrases look good in the keyword tools but are actually a waste of time.
Some SEO companies might assign different staff to each job to avoid this issue. Others put the same staff member on there who shares all that was learned about company1 with company2 (great if you are company2). Others will try different strategies on each site, so the crossover is less.
So far the SEO company is being ethical because you know about this potential problem. But I don't see the problem - while Coke and Pepsi wouldn't want to share the same SEO company, a small business would benefit from using a SEO who knows the market better. In your case, both businesses should be stronger as a result and it may work out cheaper as the SEO can submit 2 links in one go when they are link building.
Hope this helps, not a yes or no question.
Harvey.
My wife has started a therapy business (and I a website for her) and one of her classmates recommended this SEO site in the area. I called them and told them they were recommended by this classmate of my wife. I asked if it was a problem to perform optimization (optimisation for those in the commonwealth) on another site that was essentially targeting the same searches and keywords.
They told me that they could still take us on as clients and, in fact, the pay-per-click management would be beneficial for both sites (because they would potentially control a larger segment of the click purchasers?).
Is this reasonable? Ethical?
Thanks,
Steve